


You Might Be Hollow (Under All of the Dust)

by VeteranKlaus



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Blood and Gore, Cruelty, Flashbacks, Human Experimentation, M/M, Memory Loss, PTSD, Punishments, Seizures, Titan Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Titan Shifter Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Torture, eruri - Freeform, slight AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2019-10-27 03:02:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17758529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeteranKlaus/pseuds/VeteranKlaus
Summary: Levi woke up under the night sky with blades attached to green cloaks pointing at him, burns all over his naked body, and no memory of the past seventy years.





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, yet another story! More angst, more feels, more eruri - what else would you expect from me?  
> I've been wanting to write a titan Levi story for quite some time now - I've probably got twenty in my drafts - and I'm actually happy with the idea I have for this one. So, uh; have at it, if you're interested in this kind of thing?
> 
> I hope you enjoy, anyway, and onto the story!

The female titan’s roar commanded an army of titans rushing through the trees towards her trapped form. Nails dug into her legs and teeth tore chunks of her flesh out. It shocked all of them, both her strategy and the fact she’d rather be torn apart by titans than reveal her identity to them, but when Erwin shared a look with Hange, he knew she’s thinking the same thing; she wouldn’t die in there. She had made her escape and although the cadets were eager to chase her, Mikasa Ackerman all too ready to try and get her revenge on the creature for attempting to kidnap Yeager, they leave it be. She had gotten away and to try and follow her now would be suicide. And plus, they needed to get away before the titans finished with her corpse and turned to them.

Erwin hurried to command them out of the forest, hurrying away from the horde of monsters behind them.

“We were so close,” Mikasa muttered, looking at Eren’s prone form in their cart, “so close. I hope she didn’t die. She’ll wish she did,” she promised, her knuckles white on the leather reins in her grip.

“I can’t believe it,” Armin said, pale-faced and wide eyed. The kid himself had had a near death encounter, and if not for his heads-up, they very well may had lost Eren to the female titan. He was still shaken up from the experience but he was putting on a brave face and keeping himself composed as they retreated.

All in all, Erwin was actually extremely proud of the cadets with them. The entire elite squad had been killed like flies and they’d witnessed more than others in the Corps had, but they were strong and exactly the kind of soldiers the Survey Corps needed.

Out of the forest with the sun beginning to set, he had thought they would have been safe. They could continue their retreat to the walls or, if necessary, they could stop at any of the abandoned settlements, towers or castles to rest for a while before reaching the safety of the walls. He could almost relax – as much as a Commander could in enemy territory with a cart of bodies of his most skilled soldiers travelling with him – as he lead the way back, and so the sudden arrival of one such titan shocked all of them.

At first it seemed to be a simple abnormal – rather short, running at them from the distance – but with impeccable eyesight – most titans wouldn’t have noticed them from this distance – and it alternated between sprinting towards them and tumbling on all hands and knees and continuing like that.

As it got closer, however, Erwin noticed something else.

It almost resembled the Armoured Titan; the same kind of substance forming what seemed like spikes on the titans’ joints, knuckles, heels and spine, even one firm one protecting the nape of its’ neck. It formed long, deadly claws at the end of its’ fingers and blood ran down from its’ mouth where it tore the stretched skin in a roar. Its’ eyes, cold, grey and wild, jumped from each person.

“Erwin!” Hange yelled from the back of the formation, “this one –“ she broke off and Erwin turned to watch her nudge her horse on to reach his side.

“It’s not abnormal,” she hissed, worry in her eyes, “it’s too similar to the female titan and the armoured titan. Erwin, I think – I think it’s another shifter. It probably heard the female titan and came after us, and it’s gaining.”

Sure enough, the titan was swiftly approaching them, devouring the ground in leaps and strides. Before the Commander could even reply, the titan leapt forwards and brought a large fist slamming into the ground, throwing horses and their riders this way and that. Erwin himself was thrown off his horse, skidding across the ground before rolling onto his feet.

“Incapacitate it,” he barked, pulling fresh blades out. Mikasa was already hurrying towards it, anger still boiling in her veins. Erwin watched as she swung around its’ back, zoning in on its’ nape and – her blades broke. Quickly, she retreated to take her last pair of blades.

“The nape’s protected, sir! Blades won’t break it!”

With narrowed eyes, Erwin nodded at Hange and launched towards it. The scientist followed and seemed to get his hint of “keep the thing distracted” while he spun around, managing to catch a glimpse of where Mikasa’s blades had struck. Although they had broken, they had also chipped the spike on its’ nape slightly.

“Cut off its’ limbs,” he said, dodging a fist that missed him by a hair, “we can break it off.”

If this thing was a titan shifter, it seemed more unhinged, more wild, than the female one, and Erwin just hoped that wouldn’t change. If they could keep it overwhelmed and distracted, cut off all its’ limbs, then he might be able to slowly chip off the armour protecting its’ nape and take the person out. It offered a prime opportunity to get some leverage and information on the female titan – any other shifters if they were all working together outside the walls – and on shifting or titans themselves. With that optimistic idea in his head, Erwin, with the help of Hange and the cadets, set off on trying to do just that.

Hange cackled as she spun around the enraged titan, hacking away at the sensitive spots on the inside of its’ joints until the limbs were rendered basically useless, and the thing was propping itself up on the stubs of its’ upper arms, rearing itself up and snapping at them with bloody fangs, or throwing itself forwards across the ground to dodge them or attempt to crush them.

The moment the napes’ protection came off with a final swipe of Erwin’s blunt blades, the titan threw itself back with a cry, trying to put its’ vulnerable nape against the ground to hide it.

With a furious yell, Mikasa flew past its’ face, blades cutting into its eyes and making it throw itself aside to dodge the pain, and exposing its’ nape.

Jean, being the closest, delivered the killing blow; blades tearing its’ nape out, though more precisely as usual; Erwin presumed that he had heard their ideas of it being another shifter, and was aware of the necessity of keeping the person inside alive.

With a final, guttural cry, the steaming titan crashed to the ground face-first, steam rushing off its’ body in a hot cloud. The scouts took a moment to gather and compose themselves, watching the corpse expectantly but no one came out.

“Don’t let your guard drop,” Erwin warned them. He exchanged his dull blades for his last pair, deadly sharp, and used his gear to haul himself onto its’ shoulders.

He could make out a mess of black hair and pale skin, and he reached in, grabbed a shoulder, and yanked.

The man came tumbling out lifelessly, almost dragging Erwin down with him if not for his anchors embedded in the titans’ corpse keeping him firmly in place, and the Commander lowered both of them to the ground and took in the shifters while his other scouts surrounded them, blades held out defensively, ready to attack.

Though the small, unconscious, naked man on the ground in front of them seemed to pose no threat. He had the same shaggy black hair as the titans’ and a similar body – short, but well-built with lean muscle, evident in the many places his skin had burnt off the man, revealing muscle and bone. The area under his eyes was heavily burnt, too, making his face look thin and gaunt.

Some cadets blushed and turned their heads away, not wanting to stare at the seemingly vulnerable man who had just tried to gut and tear them apart moments ago.

Not one to underestimate a person, Erwin carefully held one blade inches from the mans throat and gestured to Hange to come closer. Her fingers prodded into his neck, her lips moving silently as she counted and then stood back.

“He’s alive,” she confirmed with a nod and, for good measure, nudged his leg with her toe. “Even if it doesn’t seem like it.”

“Faking?” Erwin asked, and the brunette shook her head.

“Doubt it. Pulse is too steady and slow to be faked, and anyway, Eren’s sometimes in similar states – like right now.”

Erwin was ready to just grab the man and throw him onto one of the carts, tie a cloak around his hips for modesty, and tie his wrists behind his back and deal with him once they reached the walls, but the man took in a sudden breath and jerked.

 

 

***************************************

 

 

It was a surprisingly gradual thing, the return of his senses and consciousness.

His smell came first, and brought with it the horrid smell of burning flesh. Then was ouch, bringing the feeling of sharp grass under his bare skin, dirt under his nails and mud on his back. Then hearing, revealing the murmuring of curious, hesitant, angry voices around him, and finally, his sight revealed his predicament, although it took a moment longer for him to process it.

A blade, glistening in the moonlight, was held just an inch from his tortured throat, attached to a shadow in a green cloak with bright, hateful blue eyes staring down at him, naked on the cold ground with his steaming titan a few feet away from him. He could feel the burns and missing flesh over his body, and although he was aware that he was in a horrific situation, he was more aware of the burning thirst in his throat and the fact that he had no idea where he was, who the people in front of him were, why they were ready to gut him, and what time it was. If he thought back, he could remember glimpses of being in control of his titan, or at least watching it wander endless grassy plains, and he remembered endless nights and days passing before he succumbed to the numbness in the back of his mind.

He worked his throat slowly, swallowing painfully and looking around as his eyes adjusted to sight once more. The man in front of him lowered the blade just enough so that the cool tip touched his throat, as if he wasn’t aware it was there, and then demanded; “what is your name?”

His name? That was an odd request, mainly because he hadn’t heard it, let alone said it, in the past century probably. He racked his mind for whatever he was called, licked his bleeding lips.

The tip of a blade nudged his chin impatiently, and he opened his eyes that had fallen shut. His name.

“Levi,” he said, “my name… is Levi.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you do find this interesting and want to see more, feel free to leave a kudos or a comment, it encourages me to write more and I'm happy to see people enjoying what I've made and also enjoy!   
> That's all for now!


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another quick piece that I hope you enjoy!

The people around him hardly moved, but the blonde seemed satisfied with his current cooperation, enough so that he took the blade a few inches away from him. A warning, but not an immediate one.

“Get up,” he urged, and on instinct Levi went to move and then found that the limbs he went to move were not the ones he had – he was human again, though he was used to a titans’ body and mind – and so the most he did was an awkward jerk that made his ears ring and his body sing with pain.

The movement seemed to trigger a chain reaction, jolting him back into his body properly and the pain and exhaustion lacing through it. His fingers itched at the sight of an offered hand, floating in the approaching darkness, and he turned his head to the darkness instead, deciding it was more trustworthy.

**

 

Trying to move seemed to prove too much for the man, as he promptly seemed to pass out, slumping into his side on the ground. When he showed no signs of coming to soon, Erwin put his blades away, urging everyone else to do so as well, and murmuring broke out among everyone.

“That was… odd.”

“I don’t think that’s his real name.”

“I don’t think he thinks it’s his real name, shit.”

“For all we know, he was the one that sent the female titan for Eren. Don’t feel sorry for him.”

“Get back on your horses,” Erwin said, voice loud and breaking through the murmur of the cadets’ chatting, “we’re continuing to the walls.”

Erwin took the limp body into the same cart Eren was sitting in, and after using spare rope to tie the man – Levi’s – wrists together behind his back, he threw one of the heat-retaining blankets around him, covering his burnt body. On second thought, he used another spare rope to tie his thin ankles together as well. Hange sat in the cart with them, keeping watch in case either of the two men woke up, and everyone else hurried to find their horses or ride on the back of someone elses’ if theirs had gotten hurt during the attack, and then they set off again, all eager to reach the safety of the walls.

It was, thankfully, uneventful all the way to the HQ. Since it was night not many people were out to see their return, and their new addition was suspected to just be another poor, injured soldier. The cadets with him promised not to utter another word of this to anyone else, and as soon as the horses were set up, Erwin and Hange took the man downstairs and into the basement of the HQ, the same place Eren often slept when he had first bene forced to join the Corps, while the other cadets dispersed to either grab a hot meal in the mess hall or hurrying to the showers and going to bed, tired and worn out and overwhelmed.

As much as Erwin too longed for a hot shower and a good night of sleep, he had more urgent matters. First, he tended to their new ‘friend’ – finding him a standard pair of clothes and setting them on the end of the bed, and double-checking the lock on the shackle connected from the wall to his wrist. He was disturbed to notice what looked like track mars scarred into his arm and the back of his hand, still prominent despite shifters’ ability to heal from virtually anything, as far as they knew from Eren. Not once did the raven stir, though, seemingly dead to the world around him.

“Should we wait for him to wake up?” Hange asked, staring at his unmoving form on the hard bench. Erwin pondered that for a moment before shaking his head.

“Eren’s been out for days after a transformation, and it didn’t seem like he was in the best shape either. We’ll check in the morning and throughout the day until he does,” he said, and then, “get some rest. We might be rather busy.”

 

 

 

 

Waking up this time was more disturbing than last, but also more familiar. He had to admit, however, that this was different. He had experienced waking up on a rough cot with a shackle around some part of himself, but usually, the walls were white and in place of bars there was glass, or just another wall. This was the most old-fashioned room he’d been in, but he supposed that they might just have changed designs. Oddly enough, the idea that he hadn’t been found by a group of strangers who also didn’t know who he was, but was back where he started, made his stomach plummet.

He knew better than to just mope around, though, and so he sat up and took in the small room he was in.

It was a cold, dark brick-walled room, much like an old jail cell, with bars in the front revealing a long corridor and other similar rooms. He was on the only surface other than the floor, a simple long, hard bench attached to the wall, and a sturdy chain attached to a hook led to the shackle on his wrist. At the end of the bench was a pair of folded clothes, which was odd since they usually just left him be.

His first attempt to stand up ended with him on the floor, limbs uncoordinated. At least it gave him a hint of how long he had been a titan.

He had woken up to unfamiliar people, so that gave him the idea that he might have been out long enough that ranks had changed. It was rare, but people being left in their titan form for a year, even two, did happen. The fact that he’d been there long enough to forget to walk, almost to forget his name, hinted that that had happened to him.

He managed to use the bench to steady himself until his legs could hold him, and then continue to step to the end of it. He pulled the trousers on but left the shirt, the shackle and chain being too much of an inconvenience. Already worn out, Levi slumped back into the bench and did all he could; wait.

He was pretty much an expert in dissociating until needed, having quickly learned that it was simply the best way to spend his time when given no other option.

The sound of footsteps echoing down the hallway brought him out of it, and briefly Levi debated pretending to still be unconscious, but that tactic never really worked so he stayed sitting, his legs dangling over the edge of the bed.

The blonde from before came into his sight, accompanied by a brunette. The man was holding a tray between his hands which carried a cup of water and some food that made Levi’s hungry stomach twist eagerly. They looked somewhat surprised to see Levi awake and sitting up, but didn’t comment on it. The brunette pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked the door, allowing the two of them to slide in.

No words were said as the blonde pushed the tray to Levi’s feet, and although he was ready to jump at it, he remembered the last time he had done – well, anything – without permission or prompting, and so he simply kept his gaze on the people in front of him.

“You can eat,” the man said, gesturing at the tray. Levi’s lip twitched, and with that, he reached for the water first, throat begging for it.

“What were you doing outside of the walls?” He asked, and Levi startled.

“Are we not out of them right now?” He asked in confusion, though the blonde shook his head.

“Should we be?” He asked in return, and Levi pressed his lips together.

The last thing he could remember before transforming was the briefing of his mission.

_“Find the walls, Levi. Find the walls and come back.”_

They’d been searching for the walls for years at that rate, and they’d chosen Levi to find them with the success of his titan form and obedience. It seemed, however, that the walls had found him.

He wasn’t sure what to make of it. The realisation that he could lie – or, shit, even tell the absolute truth, or play dumb – and he’d be free of the place that lay outside the walls. Unless life here was the same, or worse. He had woken up, trapped and chained, already.

“The female titan,” the blonde said, “what do you know about her?”

Levi furrowed his eyebrows, looking questioningly at him.

“What?”

“The female titan,” he repeated, as if it would suddenly jog his memory, “working to kidnap Eren Yeager.”

Yeager, he was familiar with, but not Eren. Levi shook his head, his eyebrows furrowed. He wanted to ask these people who they were, wanted to tear his hand out of this shackle and get somewhere safe and familiar, but he knew cooperation was most likely his best option in this scenario..

“I don’t know either,” he replied, “I’ve never seen a female titan, either.”

The blonde opened his mouth to ask yet another question, though the brunette jumped in suddenly, her hand hitting the ground.

“Who are you working for?” She barked, getting up in his face, and Levi supressed the urge to flinch involuntarily. His mouth worked silently for a moment while the man tried to pull her back.

“Hange, please,” he sighed, looking exasperated with her behaviour.

The two shared a look, seemingly speaking telepathically, and Levi ran his fingers over the shackle on his wrist. It made anxiety and dread bubble in his stomach and he cleared his throat.

“Why am I chained?” He asked hesitantly, almost dreading the answer.

“You did try to kill us,” he pointed out, and Levi ducked his head. It was obvious, considering he couldn’t remember anything from transforming to now, but he had hoped he hadn’t done anything like that.

He ran a hand down his face, skin still sore and healing from all the burns.

“You weren’t in control?” The brunette asked, and Levi shrugged.

“Apparently not,” he muttered. It was infuriating, not being able to control himself. The idea that he was loose in some man-eating monster was horrific and enough to make the food on the tray in front of him seem like the most unappetizing meal possible.

The blonde rose to his feet, taking a step towards the door, seemingly done with questions so far. The brunette startled and then jumped to his side and Levi, slightly taken aback by the entire thing – the sudden questioning, the sudden exit – watched after them.

“Wait,” he said suddenly, voice hoarse, and the two did pause and turn to look at them. “Who – who are you?”

That caused some confusion for them, as if he should know who they were.

“Erwin Smith,” the blonde said, “thirteenth Commander of the Survey Corps.”

Although the title screamed ‘important military man’, his name nor the ‘Survey Corps’ rang a bell, and Levi shook his head and turned away.

“What year is it?” He asked finally, looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

“Today is Wednesday, the third of April, eight-hundred and fifty.”

Levi’s stomach, already delicate and flipping dangerously, gave out at the information, and he was just glad the chain on his wrist had enough slack that he could reach the toilet in the corner.

 _“Today is Friday, the seventeenth of October, seven-hundred and seventy-nine. Subject Levi leaves in one hour to find the walls.”_  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this part! Still fairly short, though future ones will probably be longer as it gets deeper into the fic! If you enjoyed it, feel free to leave any feedback, constructive criticism, or your opinion; I appreciate it all!
> 
> Also, sorry if I got the year wrong - please correct me if I did - but that's just what I found, anyway, that the female titan attack was in 850 and the titans first appeared around 743, I think? Though the source might have just been an estimate.


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read the tags first! Some graphic violence appears in the italics like 2/3's through!  
> Other than that, I hope you enjoy it!

The two Survey Corps members left him shortly after, giving him the much needed time to himself. He tested the limits of the shackle by pacing the room until his legs hurt and he needed a break.

The shackle was long enough that he could reach each side of the wall, but not long enough that he could reach the bars or the door. The room was small, but not claustrophobically small. Small enough that they could fit plenty more in the same corridor.

He ditched the food on the tray left with him, choosing to shove it across the floor until it hit the bars and was out of reach – petty, maybe, but still – still feeling too sick to eat.

His nervous energy expelled in restless pacing, Levi slumped onto the hard bench given in the room and stared at the scars on his arm.

Seventy years. He’d set out seventy years ago, and had had no control over himself for those seventy years.

How many people had he killed? Places had he torn apart? How much of life and society had he missed?

The violent urge to lash out, animalistic instincts telling him to hurt, kill, bubbling in his veins was just a sick reminder of the fact that his mind had been a monsters for the majority of his life now. What if he was more monster than human? Surely being a mindless titan for longer than he’d been alive as a human would have some negative effects?

Despite his ‘success’ with his titan, it hadn’t come about naturally. They had just figured out ways that people might naturally be able to shift into a titan, though it was under very specific situations and with other people that they didn’t agree with, but it had come too late for Levi.

He had met one person, he thought, who had been a natural titan shifter, and their experience had differed wildly from Levi’s. There wasn’t a line between the person and the titan – it was all one thing, the person’s mind and the titan’s body like an extension. Yet with Levi, after that very first transformation, it had never just been him. He had shared his mind and body with a monster that had taken him years of training and force to learn to control, or at the very least, work with.

The natural titan shifter had commented that, unless he willingly transformed and other than the advanced healing factor it brought, there was nothing else to it. The titan was truly a simple extension for him, a mask he could put on and off and be unhindered by it in any other way.

Levi sincerely wished that that was his case. The other side of him said that the fucker deserved to pay for acting like he had a gift, that he benefited so well from it while Levi went through years of horror to be cursed in the way he was.

Levi decided that if there was something he hated the most in the world, it was titans. Titans, the people outside the walls, titan shifters, humans – all of them, he hated all of them. Himself included, though he thought that might rival for first place.

Aside from the fact that he’d spent seventy years wild, there was the fact that, despite their promises, no one had come for him. A year, they’d told him, if he didn’t return within a year then they’d send a group out for him. Evidently, they hadn’t. Or maybe they had and Levi had killed them all.

The thought made his stomach flip once more and Levi quickly changed to the next point.

He had found the walls, in a way. These people called the Survey Corps had found him and, somehow, managed to take him down – impressive and Levi was endlessly grateful for it – and they’d taken him prisoner. They seemed to believe he was linked to some other threat to them, titan-related and, unsurprisingly, Yeager related.

Though he had never heard of the name Eren Yeager, which wasn’t surprising considering he hadn’t been, well, alive basically, for the past seventy years, he was too familiar with the name Yeager. A long line of genius scientists all too interested in advancing the human race or creating enhanced weapons, or maybe it was just the one or two of them that doomed them all. He didn’t know, didn’t care.

The first, and only, Yeager he had met was a fourty-something year old man with green eyes. Ernst Yeager, he remembered. He had been intent on visiting each facility and visiting each candidate, or whatever they called their conscripted ‘volunteers’, and Levi had been one of their first successful cases. Of course he wanted to meet him.

_“You must be Levi,” the man said, an identical carbon copy of each other doctor in here; dressed in pristine white clothes and a long lab coat, although he had taken off the gloves and shoved them into his pocket. “And they’ve got you all chained up in here; a god damn shame.”_

_Levi was indeed rather trapped in his sterile white prison, thick chains leading to cuffs fitted around his wrists. In a gross, dehumanizing fashion sat a heavy collar on his neck, with holes that sat just by his veins for easy access to incapacitate him._

_“I believe it’s for everyone’s best safety,” Levi muttered disdainfully._

_Ernst seemed dissatisfied, though, digging through his pockets until he pulled out a hoop of keys and, with no hesitation, began unlocking the cuffs and letting them thud to the floor._

_“I think they’re scared of you,” Ernst hummed, “rightfully so, I suppose, but they should be doing the opposite of imprisoning you like this. You’re better than human, and everyone’s acting out of fear. But I also guess that you’ve not been perfected yet. I am sorry, it does seem to currently be a necessity. Not forever, though. Not forever.”_

_The way he spoke and acted with him was oddly intimate and affectionate, as if the man was in love with what had happened to Levi. It was, quite frankly, disgusting. He pushed his hair out of his face and ran his fingers down the track marks on his arms, the scars on his neck._

_“Do you think I could see it?” He asked, and Levi’s stomach dropped._

_“See what?” He asked reluctantly._

_“Oh,” he laughed, “well, your true self, of course.”_

_Levi hated the mesmerised tone in his words, the way he was infatuated with the experiments going on in here, but he had no choice. The ability to comply or not was a luxury he could afford any longer._

_Levi stood with aching limbs and followed out an enthusiastic Ernst to the courtyard they had for transformations. Standing at one end, Levi looked at the morning sky and cut his finger on the ring he was given._

_In a blast of red thunder and lightning, his titan formed around him swiftly. He had hardly opened his eyes before Ernst was laughing gleefully, a glint in his eyes._

_“It’s perfect,” he cried, hands clasped together, “beautiful. And we can make it even better.”_

_He hadn’t understood what he had meant then, but he came to soon. The man spent a lot more time with Levi, trying to figure out how to enhance his titan form even more, whether it was with chemicals or physical training and moulding. He would assure Levi he was doing well, doing so good as he coughed blood and writhed away from the fire in his veins, dug his ‘claws’ into the table beneath him._

_“So perfect. Hold on just a little longer. Do you understand how perfect you are? Look at this.” He lifted his limp hand, showing him the extent the ‘claws’ had grown from his human hand. They should only come out in his titan form, but they were finding ways to make some hybrid, some enhanced human form._

_“And oh! The fangs too,” he exclaimed, fingers hooking under Levi’s lips and then running along the abnormally sharp teeth that shredded at his tongue and the inside of his cheek, at one spot wearing the skin thin enough one could look through it._

_It wasn’t beautiful, or perfect. It was painful and horrific and Levi couldn’t feel any less human, and he realised that was the point. They didn’t want him to be human, didn’t see him as it, and were obsessed with the weapon he could be._

_Yeager stroked his cheek and then urged his head aside. Levi watched the crazed man with wide eyes as he reached for a clear syringe on the tray next to him._

_“Taken from one of the other shifters,” he stated, watching the tip of the needle, “I’ve been told you react positively with almost everything. Do you know just how amazing you are? Almost perfect.”_

_The needle pressed into his bruised neck, and almost instantly Levi felt fire lace through his veins, more than it had been, and he threw his head back and screamed into the gag tied around his mouth._

 

Levi felt a shiver run down his spine and instinctively, he touched his neck gingerly. The shackle around his wrist clanged and the familiar sound made him feel sick.

He didn’t know who Eren Yeager was, but if he was anything like the Yeager he knew, then he thought that the female titan might just be justified in wanting some form of revenge.

He needed to decide, now, whether or not to make friends or foes with the people around him. Did he trust the people who had turned him into what he was, the people who had taught him everything, trained him, kept him alive, or the people who currently saw him as a threat but offered another kind of life, possibly.

He wasn’t sure, but he decided to see how it played out now, and what more he could learn while here.

 

At another intermediate amount of time later, he heard familiar footsteps coming down the corridor and, unsurprisingly, it was Erwin and Hange, holding another tray of food, though Erwin eyed the discarded one.

“I would’ve thought you would have been rather hungry,” he commented, and Levi shrugged.

“You also saw me vomit,” he pointed out, and Erwin hummed.

“You should still try and eating,” Hange then said, and they set the new tray on the end of the bench. At Erwin’s nod, Levi reached for the glass of water.

“You got rather upset by the mention of what year it is,” the blonde said, standing a few feet away. Levi felt his cheeks flush slightly and he focused on the cold water. “Mind telling us why?” He asked.

Cooperation, Levi thought, always worked best.

“You can lose time,” he said, wiping water from his mouth with the back of his hand, “as a titan sometimes. It’s not always easy to regain control; usually, other people need to be there to get through to you. I was by myself. I… expected it to be earlier,” he offered, and a bushy eyebrow raised curiously.

He hated how much of an interrogation this felt like. The unnecessary cold environment drove his nerves to hell, their unreadable and unrelenting expressions and attitude not helping either.

“When did you think it was?” He asked. He seemed pleased by his cooperation so far, but something told Levi that even if he thought he had gained some trust, by the time he slid his hand out of the shackle and reached the open, taunting door, he’d have no legs.

Levi offered a nervous laugh, staring at the water in his hand. When he glanced back at them, they were watching him intently and he set the water back on the tray.

“I transformed in the October of seven-hundred and seventy-nine.” The sentence was still unreal to him, so much so that he wondered if they had made the date up to fuck with him.

That raised their eyebrows, and Hange coughed in shock.

“Seven-hundred and – damn, that’s like, what?”

“Seventy-one years ago,” he said, and the brunette nodded, exchanging a look with Erwin.

“So you’ve been wandering outside the walls, out of control, for seventy years?” Erwin said, and it was fair enough if it sounded sceptical. Levi turned his gaze down and nodded solemnly.

“It seems like that. I don’t know if I was wandering for that entire time, or how far from the walls I was from. I’m sure you were probably hoping for more answers, but I’m afraid I have no clue who or what the female titan, Eren, or the Survey Corps are.”

Levi watched as Erwin stared at him for a moment longer before gesturing for Hange to follow him out of the small room and out of earshot. If he strained to listen, then he could hear muffled talking but he couldn’t make out exactly they were discussing.

They were gone for a few minutes before he heard their footsteps returning. The two slid in and Hange slid down the wall opposite him until she was sitting, and Erwin leaned back against the wall.

“Do you know of any other titan shifters?” Erwin asked, and fair enough, Levi didn’t expect that.

Now was when Levi needed to decide whether or not he told the truth or lied to their faces. A part of him thought that they’d know whether or not he was lying though.

“What are you going to do with me?” He said instead. It was the one thing he probably wanted to know the most. Previously, by now he would have been undergoing more training to perfect his control on himself, but he knew nothing of what was going on here. He didn’t know what was past this hallway, didn’t know if he should be expecting more experiments and training, or even death. If the latter was the case, he knew that he’d do what he had to to live.

“What do you think we should do with you?” He asked, and Levi snorted loudly.

“I really don’t suppose you’re going to just let me walk out of here and never cross paths with any of you again?” He asked hopefully, and Erwin shook his head grimly.

Levi let his eyes slide shut. If he had only managed to wake himself up or something, tear himself out of his titan, he could have been free. He could have had his own life rather than hopping from one kind of captivity to the other.

“Look, I’ll tell you whatever you want about shifting or whatever the fuck it is you want to know, but I’m not staying chained up down here,” he said defensively, fingers digging into the bench beneath him.

The Commander considered it for a moment before nodding his head. “On one condition,” he said, and Levi raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve already given you a pretty good offer, but go ahead, seeing as I don’t have much of a choice here.”

“You join the Survey Corps. You’ll work under Hange and I with Eren, specifically focusing on your titan shifting abilities.”

“I’m not working with Yeager,” Levi said, a little too fast, and regretted it. “I’m not going to dance for you lot. You don’t get to experiment on me like a guinea pig. I’ll work with you. Not for you.”

Erwin raised an eyebrow slightly, obviously picking up on his attitude to Eren before even having met the man, but thankfully, he didn’t say anything.

“Of course,” he said, and he gestured for Hange to go forwards and the brunette pulled a set of keys out of her pocket. Levi held his shackled wrist out eagerly and the brunette unlocked it and set it on the bench.

Levi was quick to rub the skin where it had been rubbed slightly from the shackle and then he reached for the shirt he had been given, pulling it over his head. “Thank you,” he uttered, turning to look at the two of them.

“I’ll figure out sleeping arrangements for you tonight. For now, I’ll hold a meeting to introduce you and inform everyone of your situation.”

Though the idea of everyone being told anything at all about him, it seemed like he really had no choice in anything going on at the moment. Levi took a breath and stood up. It could be worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to contact me more personally, you can find me on Tumblr @Killerrs_Queens or wattpad @Felix-Banditos
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this part as the backstory thickens! If you did, feel free to leave a kudos or a comment so I know you enjoyed it, thank you!


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another part! Hopefully you enjoy!

Levi followed the Commander out of the cell, eager to get out of that dark place. They went up a set of stairs and through a corridor lit by candles. Large floor to ceiling windows revealed the dark night sky, and Levi froze. It was a crystal clear night, no cloud in the sky, and if Levi leaned forwards a bit then he could see as more stars appear in sight, glistening in the otherwise dark sky. The sun had just set, the remnants of itself still lingering in the withering orange fading in the sky, and Levi forgot how beautiful the sky was. The silhouette of trees bloomed across it, an illusion to his eyes, and he wanted to go out there, feel the wind on his skin.

He followed Erwin further into the winding castle until they came into a large office. The large oak desk and chairs caught his eye first, and the stacks of paper on it, but Erwin walked past it and through a door which led to his bedroom. Levi stood to the side as Erwin reached under his large bed, sliding out a compact cot and then unfolding it against the opposite wound. From the cupboard in the corner he pulled out a spare pillow and blanket, setting both on the bed. His gaze lingered on it thoughtfully, and Levi knew what he was thinking. He had given them some brief information which could, of course, end up being a complete lie. All the Commander knew for sure was that he had the ability to turn into a man eating monster. Of course he was thinking about the possibility that if he didn’t chain Levi to the bed at night, he would run away. And although he didn’t currently have an obligation to the raven, he had the obligation to keep his soldiers safe from any threat. Levi danced the line of threat.

“I have nowhere else to go,” he said, stepping over to the makeshift bed and lowering himself down onto it. It wasn’t the most comfortable but compared to the bench in that little cell, it was more than he expected. “The best thing for me right now, is to stay right where I am and not go running off in the middle of the night. Cuff me if you so feel like it,” he said with a half-hearted shrug. It was true. Unless he wanted to venture back outside the walls and attempt to find what may possibly be the ruins of where he came from, then his best options were to be another guinea pig and comply with the Survey Corps.

Erwin nodded his head, deciding to trust him on that, and waved a hand at the cot.

“You should rest,” he advised, “if you need anything, I’ll be in the next room. I don’t think I have to tell you that you can’t leave.”

Levi gestured dismissively. “I got that,” he snorted. Ignoring his blue eyes staring at him, Levi slid further down the cot and pulled the blanket over him. Erwin’s footsteps retreated out of the small bedroom and he left the door ajar. He heard the scrape of a chair as he settled down and after a few minutes came the scrape of a pencil on paper.

Levi’s eyes adjusted to the darkness slowly, and from where he lay he could see out the large windows through the gap in the curtain. Lights of the city flickered in the distance and shadows of never-ending walls blocked everyone in from the titans and secrets outside.

His tired eyes drooped closed and at some point, his consciousness drifted from his fingers like sand.

_“Try again.”_

_Levi heaved an exhausted sigh, sweat dripping down his forehead. They’d been at this for hours, trying to control his transformation to a certain extent. He doubted they realised how exhausting it was to repeatedly transform, get pulled back out, and to try and channel the unnatural, wild shift into a specific thing._

_“It’s not so simple,” he muttered, hands trembling over his knees._

_“And what do you mean by that?”_

_“I’ve told you,” Levi said, shaking his head. He had told them many, many times. “It’s not natural. Those – other people, the natural ones, they can do this shit better. I’m trying to control it as much as it is trying to control me,” he ground out._

_He thought they’d never understand. The natural shifters, they could basically flip a switch and transform. They could, with training, control the extent of their transformation. It was, like he’d said, natural. For him he’d had this thing with a mind of its’ own forced to share a body with himself, and then been told to harness it, whatever that meant._

_‘You’re the future of humanity,’ they had told him, as if he should think of himself as some god, rather than a monster with a collar._

_Sometimes it was hard to distinguish where he ended and the monster began. As time went on, it became indistinguishable. There was less resistance – not cooperation of any sorts, but Levi melted into the monster and in turn the monster melted into him and created one of two minds._

_“With time, Seven,” they said, “with time and training. Try again.”_

_Levi grit his growing fangs together and prodded at the bubbling force of animalistic rage, directed it into trying to grow into a single arm. In an explosion of red, the force washed over him like a tsunami._

_He woke up in chains._

Waking up without them was strange. It was unfamiliar and made his nerves sing with anxiety, but he forced himself to see the positive side of it.

Light filtered in through the curtains, landing across his face and making him blink heavily until he got used to it. He sat up, blankets sliding down his body. The other bed in the room was empty and made, but slept in earlier, and he could hear shuffling from what he assumed was the joint bathroom.

Levi swung his legs out of the cot and stood, throwing the blankets back over it and stretching. He half expected that, at any moment, the door would burst in and people in pristine coats and surgical gloves would rush at him, or he’d blink and be standing metres above the ground with torn bodies strewn across the floor.

With Erwin not in the room, Levi took the time to look around the room. It was rather plain – the bed and the folded out cot, a few shelves and bookcases, and a filing cabinet. The office was bigger, the large oak desk full of paper, locked filing cabinets.

The door out of the office, when Levi tried, was unlocked and the only thing stopping him from leaving was himself. But really, what would he do?

Levi left the door closed and when he turned around, Erwin had come out of the bathroom and was silently watching him.

“I’ll bring breakfast up,” he said casually, “and I’ll introduce you to the squad who found you and Yeager with Hange. We can start today, if you’re willing.”

Levi pressed his lips together before tipping his head in a nod. Not like he had much choice.

He was still conflicted. Despite what they’d put him through, he was also aware of what they’d been discussing. Future plans for him and for people like him. Ideas that he’d lead them to a perfect world, that he was the first step to the closest thing a human could get to Heaven. Towards the last time he transformed, they had been kind. The latter few years of his consciousness had been filled with praise and encouragement and awe-struck gazes, of citizens that loved him like he had already saved them from minor human sins that a god like himself was too good to share in, of guards that knew they couldn’t stop him now, doctors that worshipped him, politicians that loved him.

Those years had been good. The pain he had gone through wouldn’t be for nothing. All he had to do was find the walls, survey them, and return. Maybe help with the other shifters they had, lead the group of titan soldiers they theorized about, protect the place like he always had.

He’d found the walls, sort of. He knew where they thought the walls would be from the city. If he just followed that route back, he could return. It didn’t seem like they’d made much progress while he was away, either. He could still help.

Or maybe they’d already made the group of titan soldiers. Maybe they had infiltrated the walls already.

His mind went back to the female titan. Another shifter, presumably. If it were his best guess, he’d assume that she was part of the dreamed group – seventy years was long enough that they could have perfected their titans, hell they could have sent the group out with minor instructions to search for Levi as well – and that they were currently on whatever mission to do whatever inside or with the walls.

He needed to find the female titan. Or any other shifters – with the exception of Yeager. If Yeager was openly working with the Survey Corps, then it must be common knowledge to everyone else inside the walls, and so therefore it would be a death wish if he was openly communicating a betrayal.

He needed to find the female titan, or any other titans from outside the walls. He needed to figure out what the situation currently was; did the people inside the walls know what was outside? Know of the shifters? It didn’t seem likely, considering his questioning, but they were catching on. He needed to figure out what was going on, and where his loyalties should lie. Until then, he would play nice.

Levi sat in one of the chairs and watched Erwin leave the room.

He’d do what he had to and he’d figure out what was going on, what he’d missed. And then he’d decide what was best.

Erwin didn’t take long to gather breakfast, walking back in ten minutes later with two trays balanced in his grasp, and setting them on his desk. He gestured at the one in front of Levi before digging into his own, and Levi toyed with the food for a moment before digging in.

“I was wondering if I could ask a few more questions by ourselves,” he asked, taking a sip of his water.

“If I get to ask some questions of my own,” Levi responded, and Erwin waved a hand.

“Please do.”

He seemed to wait for Levi to start, and the raven didn’t hesitate to do so.

“The Survey Corps,” he said, “what is it?”

“Well,” the Commander began, “the Survey Corps is a military branch. We go outside the walls to study the titans and try to reclaim our land. We have around three-hundred soldiers regularly.”

Simple enough, and Levi nodded his head. He gestured for Erwin to ask a question, deciding it was fair enough to go back and forth.

“I understand you know nothing of the past seventy years,” he said, and Levi nodded, “and maybe you’ve forgotten everything. I’m sure being in such a state for such a long period of time can’t come without consequences – you’re still getting used to walking and talking and eating, I can see – and I know hours can result in short term memory loss for a while. I can’t begin to imagine seventy years. Hange might expect and accept the idea that you’ve forgotten everything since birth. However, I think that that isn’t the case. You know more than you’ve told – more than I’ve asked. I’m fine for you to not tell me now. But I know there’s more.”

Levi watched Erwin’s unreadable expression with a matching one of his own.

“That’s not a question. But alright,” Levi responded. Erwin shrugged.

“I don’t have many for the time being. I believe it’s your turn.”

Levi’s tongue dashed out across his dry lips and he took a swift drink of his water.

“What do you know about shifters? What about the titans outside the walls?”

Erwin tipped his head to the side. “Unfortunately not a lot. Yeager is currently the only titan shifter we know of – aside from you, now – and the only way we can find more out. He transformed after being eaten by a titan and controls his transformations by biting himself. The ones outside the walls are mindless and only attack humans. They don’t move at night. There’s few that we think may be shifters. The female titan, although she’s only showed up once outside the walls. The colossal titan we suspect is also a shifter. He stands a head taller than the walls and broke through them. The armoured titan is another.”

Levi nodded slightly. “But you don’t know for certain if they are, or who they are?” He asked. Erwin shook his head.

“Do you?” He responded, and Levi snorted.

“I didn’t even know they existed,” he responded truthfully.

Erwin returned his attention momentarily to his breakfast and for a moment Levi thought they were done.

“And you, Levi. How did you find out you were a titan shifter? As far as we know it’s an innate ability shown through some titan encounter.”

Levi looked at the food growing cold on the tray in front of him.

_They’d spoken to the army first._

_Of course, it was a private matter. It could go horribly wrong, or perfectly right. They needed strong, healthy men and women in their physical prime. They asked a total of fifteen from their elite squad, and ten accepted. Levi was one of them._

_They were escorted to some huge, private compound, introduced and briefed together._

_“As you probably already know, word of this does not leave this compound. You’ve been told of the positives of all of this, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for error. This is the first kind of test we’ll be running on humans. It might be unpleasant. It might be a complete failure. There’s large possibilities that you’ll have permanent, irreversible damage. There’s a possibility that you’ll die. If you’re not willing to risk all of this, then I suggest you leave now.”_

_Three people did. Levi wasn’t one of them._

_He wasn’t sure why he didn’t leave at that. Maybe a part of him knew that he wouldn’t die. Maybe a part of him thought that it was his duty to take whatever risks necessary to protect his home, his people. Maybe part of him knew he was already better than human, knew that he would be fine. Maybe something inside of him resonated with whatever symbiote they had created_. _Maybe a part of him strived for power. He doubted that, though._

_After the introduction, they started training. They wanted to test their physical limits already, wanted to make sure they were perfectly healthy before continuing. After those two months of training, Levi never saw them again. He heard them for a while, sure, heard mutated roars and screams, and then one day they got quieter until he only heard one last person there with him, and then all was silent. They never told him what happened, but he knew._

_It probably took another two months before they even actually brought their chemicals into the same room as him._

_“This is it, Levi,” Doctor Adams said. “What everything has been building up to for these past few months. We’ll be administering this outside, hoping for the best.”_

_Anxiety bubbled through his gut, but he followed them out into the large court yard with walls up to twenty metres high surrounding them. They took him to the back under the shade of the walls and asked him to sit down. The amount of guards standing around him was intimidating, but Levi focused on the doctor kneeling in front of him. There was a little oak box in his hands and he set it down, unlocked it with two different keys, and pulled out a syringe. Inside swirled some dark, muted red substance that made his heart thump._

_“This might hurt,” he said, “a lot. You’re our first try. If you can pay attention to every effect that you feel and everything that happens, that would be great… Try not to panic.”_

_A hand on the side of his head tilted it, stretching his neck and showing vulnerable veins. The tip of the needle pressed against his neck, broke the skin, and he felt a rush of heat as whatever god awful mix was in the syringe was deposited into his bloodstream._

_It was horrific. He’d felt pain before, but never on a level like this._

_He felt himself hit the floor in some kind of detached way, muscles seizing and contracting as something fought its’ way through him, raced to his lungs and claimed them, enveloped his heart and seeped into his brain, his nervous system. A similar red trickled out of his mouth and his nose and then, faster than light, he exploded into a monster that stood eight metres tall. Cries of excitement came from the surrounding doctors, claps and cheers, and Levi’s titan sat, slumped over and half-formed, flesh falling off his ribcage and steaming into nothing._

_They didn’t let him stay like that for long. The guards acted swiftly, cutting him out of the nape. Skin tore off his cheeks, his arms and legs, burnt and steaming, and Levi felt the teeth and claws of the titan cling onto his bones, felt its’ lust for blood._

_He was in an unshakable coma for a week, but he was told he had tore the throat out of one guard with his hands, done the same to another with his teeth. Tried to do the exact same as soon as he woke up._

Levi set his fork down on the tray, suddenly not hungry.

“Well,” he said, “I have no idea.”

Erwin raised an eyebrow at him. He knew he didn’t believe him one bit. He stood up, walking around the desk and putting a hand on Levi’s shoulder.

“Let’s pray you remember soon, then. We shouldn’t keep everyone waiting, now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the part! If you did, feel free to leave a kudos or a comment, I appreciate it!


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some answers and info, perhaps? Who knows, enjoy!

It seemed that they’d been told of this little meeting, as everyone was sitting in their large meeting hall, awaiting his and Erwin’s arrival.

It was odd. All the people, with the exception of Hange, Erwin and himself were teenagers, and even at that, Levi was physically the age of a man in his late twenties.

There were ten kids sitting around a long table, with Hange sitting on one side of a free chair and Erwin on the other, indicating that he was to take the one in the middle.

“Cadets, I’d like you to meet Levi…” He trailed off, throwing a glance at the raven who shrugged.

“Just Levi,” he said, and Erwin tipped his head.

“He is the one we pulled from the titan on our return to the walls. For the past few days Hange and I have been watching him. He will be working with us from here on. Yeager, he will be joining you and Hange during your titan… training and other sessions. He’ll be helping with our current mission of finding the female titan.”

“And you agree to this?” One cadet, a dark haired girl, asked, her eyes trained on Levi.

“I do,” he confirmed, nodding his head, “no threat.”

“If you want to ask questions, now is the tine do so,” Erwin urged, and though it took a moment, they did ask questions.

Mainly the obvious – he recounted the fact that he had been out of it for seventy years, much to everyone’s shock, he had no connection or knowledge of the female titan or further shifters, he had no recollection of anything else.

Levi didn’t ignore the way two of the cadets stared at him, the way that it made his titan shift and prod at him, reach out to them.

“I want to get him trained in the ODM gear… Mikasa, Jean and Reiner, I want you to take him out to the training forest. Don’t come back until there’s progress.” He turned to Levi, gesturing at the three standing cadets.

“Experts in their work. They’ll teach you with the gear we use. Hopefully you’re a fast learner.”

Levi tipped his head obediently, standing up and turning to follow the cadets out. Erwin stood as well, putting a hand on his shoulder and leaning close.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that you shouldn’t betray the trust I, and my cadets, are giving you.”

Levi pressed his lips together into a thin line, staring at the waiting trio. He nodded his head, and then followed them.

Unsurprisingly, they got a few stares. Not many outside of the group knew of Levi’s arrival. He didn’t really care, however, and he followed the trio out of the large castle and into the fresh air he didn’t know he’d been craving so badly.

“So, you’re just like Eren then?” The blonde, Reiner, commented and Levi raised an eyebrow.

“Who?” He asked. “I’m kind of on a last name basis with everyone so far.”

“The Yeager kid. The other shifter.”

Levi tipped his head back. “Ah. In that case, I suppose so, yes. I wasn’t aware there were many others,” he admitted with a shrug.

“It’s certainly a special case. You said you were out for how long?”

He was a chatty kid, apparently. “Seventy years, give or take one. I remember… Seven hundred seventy nine-ish. It’s been a while. Forgive me if I’m a bit rusty.”

“That’s insane. We’ve seen Eren lose control and time but for that long? I’m sorry.”

Levi waved a hand dismissively. “It felt like a night of shit sleep.”

“Have you fought before, if you can remember?” Mikasa jumped in, looking more serious.

Levi glanced at her and nodded. “Yes. With your gear, I won’t know until I see it. Probably not. Otherwise, yes.”

She nodded her head in satisfaction. “Good. Commander will probably want to see your combat at some point.”

They reached the training forest swiftly, a large forest of huge, towering trees with a little hut at the front of the forest full of equipment. The gear was not familiar to Levi, though the cadets showed him how to put the harness on and then the gear, and it was easy enough compared to other gear he had seen and used – god knows it was easier than some things – and then they began with simple training.

Balancing in it, first and foremost, in the same way Levi assumed they had begun their training as well. It was odd; the mechanisms and strategy’s odd and not making much sense, and Levi tried to study how the skilled cadets worked and moved with the gear.

Lunch passed and they continued, not that Levi really minded – he had worked worse conditions, longer hours, and didn’t even need to eat anymore – and more hours passed. He was getting the hang of it now, though. He was a fast learner, he had to be, and he was able to zip around the trees fast enough, though he needed to work on being able to change his blades faster and evading better.

Still, though, at dinner they called it a day.

“I’m good to work longer,” he said, and Jean chuckled.

“That’s good for some, Levi, but I’m fucking hungry. You’ve done good work anyway; hell, you are a fast learner.”

He had learned, too, that the cadets were actually pretty chill. At least those three were; Mikasa slightly tense, maybe, but not a bad person. Her intentions were good.

“Hey, if you’re determined to keep training, then I can bring you back out after dinner tonight,” Reiner offered, and Levi raised an eyebrow. He tipped his head.

“Yeah. That’d be good, thanks.”

Reiner waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Though Commander might whisk you away after dinner, so maybe not.”

With that, the four of them continued their way back to the mess hall after returning the ODM gear.

The mess hall was busy, people digging in quickly, starving after a day of training and chores and still not done yet. The cadets seemed to encourage him to follow them to their table after grabbing food, and Levi quietly followed them to their table.

“How was training? We didn’t see you at lunch,” one kid commented, and as soon as Levi looked at the brunette, he froze. Those damned green eyes. He would recognise them anywhere, anytime. Yeager. Deep, emerald green eyes that shone with knowledge, of years beyond his age.

“You heard the Commander,” Reiner said, sitting down next to Levi, “said we had to make progress. And, well, Levi here’s quite the fast learner.” He patted Levi’s shoulder with a friendly smile and laugh.

There was still something about Reiner that made something in him stir. Something that he dreaded, that he hoped for, and Levi presumed that Reiner knew as well and was why he volunteered to train him tonight.

It made Levi supress a shiver of anticipation.

“That’s great, then,” Eren said with a sickly sweet smile at Levi.

“You’re the shifter, aren’t you?” Levi asked, leaning on the table to get slightly closer to him.

Eren raised a thin eyebrow before nodding. “Yeah, ah, that’s me. You are too. It’s kinda cool to have another person that understands it a bit and is, you know, on our side, if things with the female titan go south.”

Levi snorted lightly. “I’m sure it is,” he agreed with a nod. He leaned back, taking his glass of water and taking a healthy swig.

“I think I heard Hange and the Commander speaking about more titan training tomorrow with you joining.”

“Lovely,” he said, then tilted his head to the side, “what kind of stuff should I expect? Hange kind of seems like she’d love to cut me open and see what makes me tick.”

Eren gave a soft laugh at that. “Don’t worry about that. She’s done a lot of it on me already, so you’ve been saved from that. And anyway; she’s not like that. She wouldn’t,” he promised. “But man, I’ve heard your titan is pretty cool. I was out so I couldn’t see it, but Hange sure loves it and everyone here says it’s got spikes and stuff.”

Levi raised an eyebrow slightly but nodded. “Yeah. It does.”

They continued to eat, the other cadets falling into a conversation about their own training and what they did today. The doors to the hall opened once more, drawing everyone’s attention, and he wasn’t overly surprised to see the tall Commander walking over to them.

“How was training?”

The cadets looked up, startled. One, the boy with the shaved head – Connie – opened his mouth to speak before someone kicked him under the table.

“It went well, Sir. He learns fast,” Mikasa reported with a nod of her head.

“That’s good,” he praised, and then Reiner spoke up.

“If it’s alright with you, Sir, we both thought it might be good if we continued his training. He’s shown great progress already, but of course he still needs to catch up on some things. If you don’t need him this evening, Bertholdt and I are happy to do some extra training tonight, Sir.”

Erwin glanced away in thought for a moment. “I suppose. I have nothing planned for this evening that immediately concerns you, Levi. If that’s what you want, you can.”

“Sure,” Levi shrugged.

“Be back by nine. Otherwise, train well.”

With that seemingly it, the Commander continued on his walk to get himself some food before retreating, presumably back to his office.

“As soon as you’re ready,” Reiner said with a smile.

Levi pushed his tray back and rose to his feet.

“Whenever,” he responded.

They put their trays away swiftly, Bertholdt running after them with a sheepish smile, and not a word was said until they reached the training forest. Levi didn’t want to start any kind of conversation yet other than to check he’d put the ODM gear on correctly.

Reiner and Bertholdt led the way through the thick forest on either side of him until they came at a stop on a thick branch of a tree.

“You better believe me when I say you’re getting real good with the gear, Levi,” Reiner commented.

“Yeah, if this is your first day on it then, well, you’re doing pretty damn good,” Bertholdt agreed. Levi flashed a momentary smile before nodding.

“I’ve always been a fast learner,” he shrugged off. He risked a glance around them, growing serious.

“I have to assume we’re not out here for training,” he said, lowering his voice.

That seemed to get them, too. Their warm eyes faded along with their smiles, and they shifted on the spot.

“You’re not from inside the walls, are you?” Reiner asked, and Levi rocked on his feet.

“And you are?”

The two were hesitant, reluctant to say the obvious.

“Look, I don’t know what’s happened in the past seventy years. I don’t know who you are or what you are, but I’d appreciate if you did tell me.”

“You’re Levi Ackerman,” Bertholdt said, seeming to step up now. “We were told about you. You left seventy years ago to find the walls and never returned and search patrols couldn’t find you. They thought you were dead.”

“And you were sent to find me?”

“Not necessarily.” Reiner said. “Everyone presumed you were dead. So long in titan form, as well, no one knows what that could do to a person. Nothing good. I’m surprised to see you so well, honestly, but then again we didn’t see you when you woke.”

Levi shrugged. “Surprisingly well,” he admitted, and then he took a step forwards to the taller boys.

“Tell me what’s going on,” he asked, demanded. “The female titan, is she one of you – of us? Is the Survey Corps a threat? Is Yeager a threat? How did you find the walls and why are you here?”

They were obviously expecting questions and they seemed to be good at handling it with patience, keeping themselves clear. Not willing to be pushed over by Levi but not withholding everything.

“Yes,” Reiner nodded, “the female titan is one of us. The Survey Corps…” The two exchanged a glance. “We can’t be sure. Of course they’re not going to roll over and let us do what we want. We’re sure of that by now. But they won’t be able to stop us. We were sent to find the walls and destroy humanity inside it. Bertholdt, as the colossal titan, broke the wall first. But then we found out about Yeager inheriting one of the titan powers. Currently, our objective is to get him to return with us. We’ve been training with the cadets since we broke the wall. No one knows anything about us or the female titan so far.”

Levi let the information process through him before letting out a long breath and nodding.

“They were looking for me?” He asked. The thought made him oddly warm.

“As far as we know, yes. Of course, we weren’t around seventy years ago, so it’s mostly just stories and reports handed down. I got the chance of speaking to one man who had worked with you – Doctor Adams, I believe – and he was devastated about your loss. He had pushed for the search and rescue teams, but they couldn’t keep them going forever. Your research helped a lot, apparently. He said that we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without you.”

Levi pressed his lips together, glancing down. The dirt floor seemed miles below him.

“Is he still around?” He asked, though he knew it was a long shot.

“He was quite ill when we got to see him. I’m afraid not. I’m sorry.”

Levi waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. Thank you.”

Reiner stepped forwards, reaching out and taking his forearm.

“You need to help us. We’re planning less than a year to get Yeager with us, and then we can return. With you, possibly even less. We’ve warmed up to Yeager, but we’ve yet to talk to him. With the Survey Corps getting closer to Annie – the female titan – we need to be careful. The next time we get to go to the interior, we can tell her about you. If the Commander permits it, maybe you can come with us to meet her. I’m sure she’d love to meet you. She was always doing research on the first shifters,” Reiner said fondly.

“We’ll see how it plays out. For now, you’re all acting nice?” He asked, and the two shrugged before nodding.

“We have to. No one suspects anything.”

Levi pressed his lips together.

“You’re with us, right?” Reiner pressed, somewhat anxiously.

Levi snorted, waving the worried question away. “I want to know everything,” he said. “Everything you know. Everything that’s happened.”

 

They didn’t have too long to discuss what was going on, in Levi’s opinion. Certainly not enough time for him to figure out what was going on. For some reason, he still felt conflicted. It should be a no-brainer, really. He worked for these people, he had a job to finish, so that was what he should be doing. He could trust Reiner and Bertholdt and this Annie girl, wherever she was. They, apparently, came from the same place he did, seeing as they already knew who he was and had spoken to his previous doctors. They had the same goal, same ambitions.

Levi was, to the rest of the Survey Corps, a neutral slate. He wasn’t good nor bad. He had to potential to be both. Reiner and Berthodlt, assuming so, Annie as well, were trusted soldiers. Cadets whom had grown close to their fellow cadets, who were respected and relied on the cover of simple cadet. They trusted him to keep their cover of obedient scout, trusted him to accompany them on their mission.

Yet, they had killed innocent people. Their entire plan was to wipe out thousands of innocent people. If that was their end goal with Levi, all those years ago, they’d never said so. For protection, they had said. An advancement in humanity that would be shared with all. Not something used for murder, even if he didn’t know if some war had broken out in the past seventy years. He didn’t agree with unjustified murder.

He didn’t like the conflict in himself, either. He stared out the window, listening to the Commander working in his office as he lay in the cot at night. He was born and bred to be a soldier, a weapon. He had never had the luxury of deciding for himself, of having his own opinions and morals. The monster in him fought to get back out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this part. Feel free to share your opinions or feedback, I love hearing it!


	6. Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, wow, an update! Holy shit!  
> I guess continuing to watch the second part of season 3 inspired me to continue it, or whatever, but I'm here again! If anyone's still reading this, anywho. If anyone is, well, in that case: enjoy!

Erwin brought breakfast up for them the next morning and after receiving the small nod, Levi ate. 

"Today, I'd like you to talk to Hange and Yeager," said the commander, blue eyes watching Levi sip from his glass of water. "I'd appreciate your aid with Yeager's titan transformation and our knowledge on titans."

Levi simply nodded. It wasn't like he had a choice, even if the idea of those green eyes made his stomach churn, the monster in him bare his fangs and snarl. He dashed his tongue along his sharp teeth and pressed his lips together.

"I'm afraid there might be some... differences between myself and Yeager, concerning our titans," he said hesitantly. Erwin raised a bushy eyebrow at him.

"And why might that be?"

Levi looked at the food in front of him, contemplating his words. Erwin continued.

"Have you happened to 'remember' something?"

Levi grinded his teeth together. Why was he so conflicted? He should be spitting lies easily, throwing them off their scent. Especially now with Reiner and Bertholdt's plan. Perhaps it was that, however. Had so much changed in seventy years that they were to simply wipe out some innocent humans? Surely these people who locked themselves away inside walls couldn't be such a threat. It seemed like unfair murder, slaughter, genocide, and that wasn't what Levi had signed up to do. Levi had signed up to protect his home and his friends. 

"What are you trying to find outside the walls?" He asked, turning his eyes up to meet Erwin's. "What's so important out there?"

"Maybe you could tell us that," Erwin replied. "We're trying to take back our land from the titans so that we no longer have to live like caged animals inside walls, fearful that one day the titans will break in. And that's already happened. With more being revealed to us of titan shifters, it raises some questions. What _is_ so important out there? How did we come about to these walls? Where do the titans come from? And why are there people with the ability to transform into titans trying to wipe us out? But perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. Perhaps there have always been titans and shifters and now, some of them simply see themselves as better than humans and want the world to themselves. Who knows, Levi. Although I think you might."

Levi pressed his lips together, leaning back in his chair. "I know nothing of these past seventy years. My memories of the years leading up to my transformation are... patchy at best. Snippets of nothing important. I don't know who the female titan is, or of any other current shifters."

Erwin watched him for a moment. "You don't eat unless you're given permission," he stated. Levi froze. 

"What?"

"You don't eat unless given permission," the Commander repeated. "Why?"

Levi stared at the food. "It's polite," he stated, and Erwin snorted openly at him. Levi's eyebrows drew together and he shot him a glare.

"Levi, I understand if you don't want to tell us everything, but I'd appreciate if you didn't lie." 

_Kill him. We're a God. Let me kill him._

Levi swallowed dryly against the craving for blood and he stuffed his hands under the table, hiding the way his nails hardened and extended into claws. 

"I'd also appreciate if you didn't stare at my throat as if you were an inch from tearing it out, please."

Levi's eyes flicked back up to Erwin's. "I'm not your guinea pig," he blurted, claws digging into the seat beneath him.  

"No, you're not."

"I'm not your prisoner."

"No, you're not."

"What am I?"

Erwin's eyes bore into him. "You're my soldier." 

Levi stared at him silently. "When do I need to speak to Hange and Yeager?" He asked.

"Soon. Finish breakfast. May I ask why there might be difficulty aiding Yeager?"

Levi pursed his lips. "You can lose control," he stated. "It's unpredictable. Sometimes it won't work, is all," he said, and it wasn't a lie. It simply wasn't the whole truth. Erwin simply nodded at him and sipped his water. 

Erwin had also gotten him his own uniform now, apparently. After breakfast he let him change into it, the scouts uniform and harness fitting snugly to his body and he could finally be rid of the clothes he'd been lent and into some that actually fitted him. Finally changed, Erwin guided the way out of his office and across to a large, empty courtyard with tall walls on either side and plenty of large weaponry and equipment. Hange stood in the middle, chatting to the Yeager boy. Upon Erwin and him approaching, they fell quiet.

"Ah, Levi! It's nice to be able to talk to you again!" She greeted enthusiastically. Levi hummed in response.

"What's first?" He asked, glancing around the large courtyard.

"Well, I'd love for you to tell us a bit more about your own titan form first, if that's alright - it had spikes!" 

Levi snorted, bobbing his head in a nod. "It does. I'm surprised you managed to break through them," he commented.

"It took a while," Erwin admitted to his side. Levi glanced at the blade holsters on Hange's hips.

"Even so, blades shouldn't be able to cut them," he muttered, scratching the back of his neck. "I must have been really weak. Anyway, yes: my titan has spikes. I believe it's made of a mix of hardened skin and bone, mainly used for attacking."

"Kind of like the armoured titan, I guess," Eren commented, and for the first time since coming out to the courtyard, Levi glanced at him. "It's covered in a similar-looking... well, armour, and it makes it impossible to harm him because our blades can't break through it."

Levi shrugged. "I've not seen the armoured titan, so I can't confirm nor deny that. Maybe it is."

"Your titan is also incredibly fast," Hange commented, "you gained on us quicker than I've ever seen a titan run before."

"Speed is my speciality," he stated. "I can probably go faster while I'm in control."

Hange raised her eyebrows curiously. "We'd have to test that outside the walls," she mumbled to herself, scratching her jaw in thought, "there's not enough room here for you to run. Anyway! How much do you know of your titan form? About it?" She asked, and Levi tipped his head to the side. "Do you know its full potential? Eren says his titan is like... like an extension of himself; is that true for you? How did you lose control?"

Levi blinked at the onslaught of questions. "I like to imagine I know my titan form pretty well," he muttered, "but obviously, I've yet to perfect it. I'd also like to imagine I know its full potential." He paused at the last two questions, looking away. "No," he admitted. "My titan is its own creature. We simply... coexist, most of the time. I lose control through exhaustion or if I'm in a life-threatening situation, instincts sometimes take over."

"Your titan is its own creature?" Echoed Hange, utterly transfixed on him. Eren and Erwin too seemed curious, leaning a little closer as he spoke. Hange clapped her hands together. "Oh! That's _magnificent_! What is he like? Does he think? Can you hear his thoughts? Can I _talk_ to him?"

Levi pressed his lips together, fingers flexing. He hated the tone of her voice, the utter fascination and infatuation with his inhumaneness. He hated it. " _It_ ," he stressed, "is a mindless creature. It doesn't think. Its only thoughts are my own; it only knows what I know. The only thing it's capable of is feeling anger. It can't... talk." He scoffed at the idea as if it was ridiculous, shaking his head. He took a steadying breath and folded his arms across his chest. Hange deflated slightly but nodded.

"Can I see it?" She asked, eyes wide and hopeful. Levi shifted from foot to foot, glancing at the ring on his finger that had stayed with him since the beginning of it all.

"You're going to have to be ready to take me down if I can't control it," he stated casually. Hange tapped the gear on her hips and Erwin nodded. Satisfied, Levi walked a few paces away from them and flicked the spike out of his ring. He didn't necessarily need self-inflicted pain or injury to bring about his transformation, but often times it helped; especially when he was tired from recently transforming. With a sigh, Levi turned his consciousness inwards and sliced his thumb on the ring. Bright red enveloped him, lightning burning the grass beneath his feet, and when he peeled his eyes open he was kneeling on the ground, steaming hands limp by his side. He lifted his head to look at the wary scouts in front of him, Hange's hand on her blades, but then he sat back down on the grass and inched his hand closer to them in an inviting gesture. 

A wide grin split Hange's face and she jumped on the spot like a hyperactive puppy, squealing and clapping. Then she hurried over, running her hands along Levi's fingers, the short but sturdy spikes on his knuckles and his deadly talons. She squealed out incoherent words in her excitement and Yeager and Erwin approached slowly. 

"Can you hear us, Levi?" The Commander called. Levi nodded his head slightly, eyes flicking to him. Erwin tipped his head in acknowledgement. He looked like he might say something but Hange cut him off.

"How strong are you claws? Can they break rock? Can I try and cut a bit of the spikes off for sampling? Oh, look at your teeth!" 

Levi's jaw worked silently, exhaling in response. He glanced around and reached out to a stray rock that looked like it might have once been part of the crumbling courtyard walls around him, and he dug his nails into it until it split in half. Hange gasped in delight, watching the two halves fall from his hand. He pulled his hand back, going to his other arm, and with a deep groan from his titan, he snapped the tip of the spike off, discarding it on the floor. It hurt; God, it hurt, but he'd been through worse, had already had samples of his spikes taken in a similar way. Once more was nothing. Hange looked like she was in Heaven as she picked it up, holding it in the palms of both hands. 

"Levi! Can you come out? I'd love to talk some more!" She enthused, and Levi nodded once. The hardened spike on the nape of his neck cracked slowly with his will and slowly, it began to crumble away. With it gone Levi could easily force himself out, bursting through the hot flesh with a gasp. He glared at the flesh stuck to his skin and yanked himself away from it, and then he pulled himself wholly out of the steaming corpse of his titan, sliding down its back and using the spikes down its spine to get down. He staggered slightly as his feet hit the floor but he steadied himself on his titan corpse.

He turned to face an eager Hange and resigned himself to more of her prodding.

 

 

 

A few hours went by and Levi came to realise Hange was surprisingly... caring might not be the word, but not merciless. She didn't push them too hard and if she sensed he seemed uncomfortable, she stopped prodding for the time being. She was in the middle of discussing some of her theories about titans and the sunlight when a scout, tall, with a strong nose and blonde hair.

"Commander," he greets, holding an envelope in his hands. "This came for you." His eyes flick over to Levi curiously, his nose twitching as he sniffs the air, and then he forces his gaze back to Erwin. The Commander reaches out to take the envelope, reading it before opening it on the spot and reading it quickly. His lips press into a tight line and he sighs. 

"Hange, I believe we have to call this to an end." His eyes flick to Eren and Levi. "You are dismissed for the day. Continue with your normal training. Levi, I'd appreciate if you continued working with the ODM gear until further notice." 

Levi nodded along with Eren and with that Erwin left, Hange and the man following behind him. He hesitated, lingering in the courtyard.

"Wonder what that's about," Eren muttered. Levi shrugged, eyes lingering on Yeager. Yeager, Yeager, Yeager; it sang through his head like a cursed mantra, those green eyes burning him. He wondered how the Yeager's ended up inside the walls, or were they simply a huge family, everywhere?

"You got family?" Levi asked, maybe slightly abruptly.

Eren startled slightly, blinking down at him with owlish eyes. He scratched the back of his neck. "Uh... no. My mother died when the titans breached the wall and my dad died years ago. Mikasa - she's like a sister to me, and Armin's like a brother to me, though, and I have them."

Levi nodded, scratching his jaw. "Uh, sorry," he offered half-heartedly. "Did you always know you could... shift?"

Eren shook his head. "We only found out a while ago when it first happened. I've been working with Erwin to learn more about it and we're hoping that I'll be able to help fight the titans."

Levi raised an eyebrow curiously at him, soaking in the information. "Smart," he commented and the kid beamed at him. Levi let his gaze linger on the brunette for a moment longer. He seemed completely oblivious to his family's long history of sadism and involvement with titans. It wouldn't be a surprise to him if his own father had made him the titan shifter that he was. No, that wouldn't surprise him one bit. Part of him told him they he couldn't hate the kid for something his family had done and he hadn't, but the other part of him told him it didn't matter. He was a Yeager and Yeager's were heartless bastards. Levi shook his head lightly and turned, heading back inside. 

 

 

 

"We're going to the capital." 

Levi, sitting in the seat between Hange and Erwin, glanced up at that. 

Erwin had called a meeting shortly after lunch, calling the some of the 104th - Armin, Eren, Mikasa and Jean - plus Levi to him to announce that. They Survey Corps had been called to the capital, demanding Erwin hand Eren over to the military police. While travelling through Stohess they would use Eren as bait to try and lure the target underground after Armin approached them to try and lure them into a false sense of security. When Erwin announced the name  _Annie Leonhart,_ Levi had perked up. The same person Reiner and Bertholdt had spoken about. Erwin revealed it was Armin who had come the conclusion of it being Annie, and he had no idea how the kid managed to figure that out. For what he lacked physically, he made up for it mentally. He wasn't sure how he thought about that. He had wanted to speak to her, get as much information on the situation in and outside of the walls, but he wasn't about to risk his life for it. 

"And why am I here?" Levi asked, turning his gaze to the Commander.

"You are our backup. If things go extremely south, I want you to help Eren take down the female titan. In your titan form. She won't expect another shifter on our side. You'll be able to fight better in your titan form than ODM gear at the moment, I assume."

Levi raised his thin eyebrows. "I'm not a weapon," he hissed.

"I'm not ordering you to do it. I'm asking you to as a last resort. I'd prefer if you didn't have to resort to this and we could keep your identity hidden for longer, but it may be necessary."

Levi pressed his lips together, staring back at Erwin's unwavering, steady gaze. He looked away first. "Fine."

"Thank you, Levi. Gather your things; we leave as soon as possible."

 

 

 

He travelled behind them all, with the other undercover scouts. He didn't speak a word, the weight of Erwin's trust and the opportunity to blow it completely bearing down on his shoulders. He could transform and take Yeager down, break himself and the female titan out of the walls. He could begin the new mission that the shifters had started, could flatten this secluded area of humanity in a few days. Hell, with Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt, it'd taken only a few hours. Although it did seem like they wanted to get Yeager for some reason, so perhaps he couldn't hurt or kill him.

Plus, the unjustified murder of thousands of innocent humans didn't sit well with him. He wasn't a murderer; he was a warrior, unless those two titles had become synonyms. In that case, he supposed he was a soldier instead. He twisted his ring around his finger in an anxious tic. They had abandoned their scout uniforms in favour of everyday clothing, aiming to blend in. He'd be waiting around the scene, perhaps a street or two away to keep himself safe until he was possibly needed. If the female titan did try to transform and succeeded, then he'd follow at a safe distance and only interfere upon a life or death situation or if the female titan was about to escape, and only if it seemed that Eren or the other scouts were unable to stop her. Levi was fine with the idea of simply sitting on the side lines.

 

Upon arrival, everyone spread out. Levi lingered at the end of the street, hidden just inside an alleyway. He could see clearly when three figure, hidden in green cloaks and followed by a blonde haired girl, wove themselves towards the entrance to an underground tunnel. He saw as the hidden scouts closed in slightly, saw people peer over rooftops and stalls as Annie Leonhardt stood at the top of the staircase, unmoving. She knew this was a trap. He knew she was going to transform. She raised her hand to her mouth and everyone acted quickly, scouts sprinting to her as Armin shot a flair into the sky, lighting the place up. A few scouts got their hands on her, pulling her hand away from her mouth, but Levi caught the glint of silver just a moment before everyone was blown back by her transformation. He watched innocent scouts get crushed, their blood spraying the floor red. He was familiar with gore and death, but he still found himself taken aback by Annie's ruthlessness. He watched as she caught the wires of scouts' ODM gear and crushed them against buildings, threw them across the street, and he shakily used his own gear to take himself further away from her. He regrouped with Hange's squad, finishing setting up traps in the path they had made to lead her down as a plan C. She greeted him with a nod and he simply came forwards to help set up the traps.

"Eren's incapacitated, I assume," he reported. "She crashed the tunnel and he's yet to make himself known." 

Hange grit her teeth together, shaking her head slightly. "We'll get her with these," she assured him, slapping the top of a barrel. "Don't you worry a thing." 

He could hear buildings crash as she recklessly tore them down and he could only think  _what happened to using this as a way to find peace?_

She approached at a run, coaxed down the street by Mikasa and Jean and other scouts, and she fell right into their trap. Hange gave the signal and dozens of anchors embedded into her flesh, holding her into place and stopping her so suddenly that she fell backwards in a tangle of wires. Hange rolled the anchored net down on top of her, trapping her underneath it, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like she couldn't move beneath the net and amongst the mess of wires and anchors, completely immobile. It seemed like they wouldn't even need Eren at all in this; they could go down, cut her out, and take her away for questioning. It seemed like that was what was going to happen. Then her leg, sticking out from the heavy net, whipped around the ground, destroying the traps and freeing herself. Everyone startled, jumping to dodge the flying anchors and wires she sent in her wake.

"Don't kill her! We need her alive!" Shouted a scout as they gave chase, others quickly following after her, and Hange lingered for a moment.

"If she gets to the walls and we've not managed to catch her or Eren hasn't come around, we'll need you, Levi," she said, eyes dark and heavy and serious. Levi swallowed and tipped his head in a nod, then watched as she set off after the titan, leaving him on the roof alone. They'd simply have to break her out again if Levi was forced - he wasn't forced, but he wasn't sure he could simply stand by and watch as she narrowly avoided killing the innocent, evacuating citizens - to capture her. She was a large titan, possibly around six metres taller than himself in his titan form, and she showed exceptional skill in combat. But the addition of a new shifter would shock her, and maybe she'd even recognise Levi's titan form if she had done her 'research' like Reiner had claimed she liked to do.

He was weighing his options when the sky split with thunder and lightning, the tell-tale explosion of another titan transformation drawing everyone's attention to the ruins of the tunnel where Eren had been seen last, and where his titan now stood. Levi had yet to see his titan and it almost looked similar to Annie's; tall and toned and muscular. His teeth and ears were sharp, eyes glowing green as he let out a hardly controlled roar of rage before taking off in the direction of the female titan. Levi almost let out a sigh of relief at the idea that he wouldn't have to interfere, but he didn't get his hopes up. Instead, he aimed his anchors at the nearest building and took off, catching up with Hange, Armin and Jean standing idly on a rooftop. The female titan was heading towards the wall, taking a path through areas where the buildings became more spare and the scouts with ODM gear were useless. 

"Looks like he's in control of himself this time around," Hange commented, scrutinizing the fight ahead of them. 

"Yes," agreed Armin, "but Eren has yet to win against the female titan even once in a fight." 

"If he's transformed, he's ready for the worst this time. He's got this, okay?" Jean assured confidently, eyes flicking between the titans and the scouts. "He won't lose so eas-"

"Spirit alone won't win a fight," Armin interrupted him, jaw set, "you know that first-hand. Surpassing Annie... it'll take more."

They all turn to watch Eren chase after Annie and more scouts joined them.

"They're heading to level ground," a brunette commented, frustration lacing his words. "Our gear's useless there."

Hange glanced back at them. "Split into two groups and go around," she barked, waving her blade. The scouts nodded, complying quickly to do so. "Let's go. Levi, you're with us," she added, gesturing for him to follow after them all. He huffed out a breath and nodded, pushing off the roof and following after the three of them. 

They fought well; Annie was strategic and skilled and ruthless and Eren was all brunt force and strength fuelled by his emotions. Despite Annie being more skilled and in tune with her titan self, Eren seemed to put up a good fight, familiar with her style of fighting and completely in control of himself. It was looking hopeful if one ignored the burning buildings and ruins they left in their wake. Levi cringed internally each time they crashed into a building and the building collapsed under the titans.

Something happened. Like a flick of a switch the tables turned and Annie's fist, knuckles hardened, slammed into Eren's head, driving him into the debris of a building again and again and again. He saw Hange falter, Jean's jaw going slightly slack and Armin's eyes wide in disbelief as Eren simply sat, slumped over and unresponsive. Annie turned around, taking a few slower steps away from him, heading to the wall. It only took that second of her attention gone for Eren to... snap. His body overheating, turning grey like ash, veins red-hot, eyes burning and wild. He wasn't in control any more as he screamed and launched himself at the female titan like a mad man, crashing into buildings and snapping at her like a wild dog. He barrelled into her, dragging her to a floor and skidding across the ground, crushing all the stalls of the marketplace beneath their bodies as they slid to a halt in front of the walls. The scouts all came to a stop atop the last row of houses, unsure of how to react. Mikasa was quick to return to their side, yelling for Eren only for Hange to stop her.

"I don't think Eren will recognise you now," said Hange, holding a hand out in front of the cadet. 

Eren was a sight to behold; unhindered by his missing limbs, flesh burning and expelling heat he could feel from the roof, all untamed fury and rage that twisted something animalistic inside himself. He roared at Annie, trapped beneath him and looking fearful, and Levi realised he was going to kill her. That was his only goal now, and it was pure luck she managed to kick him away in a desperate attempt to free herself. Her fingers turned blue with crystal and she all but threw herself at the wall, using her hardened fingers to climb up the wall. Eren lunged, managing to bit off her right leg but she still managed to kick him off. It was going too far; Eren was either going to get himself killed or kill her, or she was going to get away over the walls and he'd lose his chance to get information from her. Reiner and Bertholdt could break her out again once they needed to, but they weren't done playing nice yet and following orders. 

This was the situation Erwin had requested his help in, and Levi wasn't one to let such mindless violence, pointless death and destruction to continue. He threw himself off the roof and as he fell, he sliced his finger.

He erupted in a blood red explosion, lightning searing the ground below him. Annie's head whipped around to face him, her eyes wide in terror. Eren hardly acknowledged him by anything more than an infuriated roar. Levi ignored him in favour of launching himself at the wall and at Annie, feet digging into the wall while he grabbed her wrists and pulled. He heard cracks and he dug his claws into her wrists and twisted, yanked them back, and they came clean off; flying out of his own grip and crashing to the ground in a steaming heap. Annie didn't have a single second to try and catch herself as she fell from the wall and right into Eren. Levi hesitated, hanging onto the wall above the two of them and watching as Eren covered her limp body with his, hissing from deep in his throat. The scouts yelled at Eren to stop, at Levi to do something, but he was stuck watching for a moment as Eren tore her nape apart to reveal the girl inside, only to hesitate, staring down at her face. Then he roared, loud and guttural, and seemed to explode in a bright light. Flesh bubbled up between the two of them, moulding them together, and Levi's jaw dropped slightly. He wouldn't... he couldn't try to do that, but he was. 

 _"Idiot,"_ Levi hissed to himself. What was he trying to accomplish? Levi jumped down from the wall, hesitating only a second before throwing himself at Eren. He dug his nails into his shoulder, throwing him back and trying to tell him to stop only for it to come out as a roar. The only thing that happened was Levi's own flesh began to melt into Eren's, sending searing pain up his arm. Levi grit his teeth, glaring at the titan and trying to think about what to do. Finally, Levi leaned forwards, baring his teeth and digging into Eren's flesh. He leaned in until he knew he was deep enough in and then he pulled back, tearing Eren, untouched, from his nape. His titan form slumped over, already beginning to steam way into nonexistence, and Levi fell back away from the corpses to sit on the floor. He his unburnt hand to his mouth, plucking Eren out and laying him gently on the floor. Levi watched as the scouts hurried over, now no longer fearing for their life as Eren was unconscious and Annie trapped in a case of her own hardening crystals and Levi non-threatening and compliant, and then he slumped down, let his nape break away, and let unconsciousness take him as blades sliced into his titan's flesh. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you did enjoy this part, feel free to leave a kudos or a comment; I appreciate them all and love hearing your feedback and thoughts! Thank you!


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